29 November 2011

Press release

Natwivity - the social media natwivity - is back for Christmas 2011

Natwivity, the Christmas story told on Twitter and Facebook, is back for another year with more than 10,000 followers already signed up ahead of its launch date on 1 December.

Natwivitybegan, in 2010, as a project to tell the Christmas story in an up-to-date format for the digital age. Followers catch up with the story as it unfolds through tweeted comments during the day. Thousands of followers will, once again, hear the thoughts of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and wise men, but this year can look out for two new voices - the inn-keeper's wife and a reporter for the Jerusalem Daily.

Huw Tyler of creative agency, Share Creative, who devised Natwivity, said of its popularity: "Natwivity caught on because it helps us imagine the thoughts and feelings of a group of people caught up in one of the biggest stories ever told, and the Twitter platform is a great medium to express that."

Each character will post up to 140-character updates on Twitter and Facebook each day. By reading their daily tweets, followers can learn more about each of the character's lives in the run-up to the birth of Jesus on 25 December. Excerpts reveal Mary's inner thoughts as she decides how to reveal news of her pregnancy to Joseph, while the JerusalemDaily's star reporter files stories about late night arguments of an expectant couple and a girl of 16 being thrown out of her home.

Among the team of writers is Andy Kind, a stand-up comedian, writer and tweeter. Andy said: "Many of our followers from last year told me Natwivity had helped them rediscover the story afresh because of the personal - and, we hope, comic - observations. Tweeting the nativity also really helped me think how this story might have unfolded at a personal level for such well-known characters."

Natwivityhas been made possible through collaboration between Share Creative and the Evangelical Alliance.

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Notes to Editors

The Evangelical Alliance We are the largest and oldest body representing the UK’s two million evangelical Christians. For more than 165 years, we have been bringing Christians together and helping them listen to, and be heard by, the government, media and society. We’re here to connect people for a shared mission, whether it’s celebrating the Bible, making a difference in our communities or lobbying the government for a better society. From Skye to Southampton, from Coleraine to Cardiff, we work across 79 denominations, 3,500 churches, 750 organisations and thousands of individual members. And we're not just uniting Christians within the UK – we are a founding member of the World Evangelical Alliance, a global network of more than 600 million evangelical Christians. For more information, go to www.eauk.org.